


Journey to Planet Misthaven

by brokenmimir



Series: Swan Queen Week Winter 2015 [2]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, F/F, Swan Queen Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-26
Updated: 2015-01-26
Packaged: 2018-03-09 04:41:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3236585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brokenmimir/pseuds/brokenmimir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>SQWeek2015, Day 2: Roommates<br/>Emma Swan joins the expedition to found the colony of Storybrooke.  She was expecting a long six month journey in a tiny cabin.  She wasn't expecting her cabin mate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Journey to Planet Misthaven

Emma glanced at the pad, scrolling through the information quickly until she found what she was looking for. With a smile she walked down the hallway, stopping at one of the doors. It looked like all of the others, but with a tiny 3C-11 printed in blocky white characters on the gray metal. She waved her hand in front of the scanner and a moment later the doors hissed open, revealing the room beyond.

It was small, but she’d been expecting that. Emma had lived her entire life in the tight confines of starships, and she was used to have almost no personal space. What was going to be strange was trying to get used to living under the open sky when they reached Misthaven in six months.

The room had only a pair of beds for furnishings, one on each wall, with a large viewer opposite the door. It was currently showing news reports from across New Boston, and had a small countdown at one corner of the screen. Three hours and fourteen minutes until launch.

Emma chose the left bed, easily setting the hand reader to recognize her so that only she could open the lockers under the bed. Pulling them open she dumped her clothing and other personal effects in the drawers. It was tiny, cramped, and destined to be shared with a complete stranger, but for six months it would be home.

She had just dropped onto the bed and put her feet up with the door beeped before hissing open. Emma leaned her head back to take in her roommate and felt her mouth go dry.

Emma was dressed in her typical functional jumpsuit. It was a plain gray color, notable only for the array of pockets scattered across it which she’d filled with odds and ends that had helped her with her job over the years. Her hair was left loose around her shoulders, although, in a heartbeat she could bind it up if it got in the way. Simple, functional, utilitarian.

The woman standing in the doorway was anything but. She had shoulder length hair that shined, framing her gorgeous face. She was dressed in the latest fashion, featuring a syth-leather dress that looked painted on her gorgeous body. A translucent silk jacket covered the revealing outfit, transforming it from provocative to simply enticing. Emma found herself very enticed by what she saw.

The woman had been studying Emma just as closely, and when she continued to hesitate in the doorway Emma finally spoke up. “Hey, roomie. Why don’t you come in before the door decides to close?”

The woman swept in, head held high as though she hadn’t been hesitating a moment before. Emma found the show of superiority somewhat endearing in an annoying kind of way.

A long awkward silence followed as Emma lazily watched the woman fumble with her locker, obviously not used to it, before trying to stuff far too many articles of clothing into the tiny storage space. When the atmosphere began to get too uncomfortable she finally spoke. “I’m Emma Swan. I’m going to be the Sheriff for the new Colony.”

The woman paused in her work before turning around and looking at her. “Regina Mills. I’ll be the first Administrator of Storybrooke.”  
  
“Nice to meet you,” Emma said. “I guess we’ll be seeing a lot of each other. Six months sharing a room, and we’ll be working closely when we get there too.”

Regina went back to working. Emma put up with the silence for a while before finally cracking and speaking again. “So, what made you decide to jump on a ship and head outside of settled space to help found a colony?”

“Why did you?” Regina asked.

“Hey, I asked first,” Emma said. Regina didn’t say anything, and finally Emma sighed and gave in. “I spent my whole life on ships, don’t even know who my parents were. Just drifted from port to port, helping out on merchant freighters. When I got older I became a bounty hunter. I’d done some collection for Mr. Gold, and when he decided to put this colony together he asked me to be the first Sheriff. I thought it’d be nice to try putting down roots for once. I’m not getting any younger.”

Emma looked away, face turning red. She didn’t like talking about herself much, but if opening up meant not having to put up with tense silences in their tiny room for six months then she was willing. She’d seen enough people get cabin fever on long voyages to make sure to defuse any tensions she could from the start.

For a while it seemed like Regina wasn’t going to answer her, but eventually she spoke. “My family has been involved in politics for generations. My mother and I disagreed about some issues, and I decided to get a new start. Mr. Gold offered me the position of Administrator when I approached him about his expedition.”

Emma relaxed slightly. It wasn’t much, but Regina hadn’t just completely stonewalled her. She had the feeling that her new roommate was underplaying just how ugly the incident with her mother was. She’d seen enough politics working as a bounty hunter to have a few guesses.

While they didn’t speak anymore, things weren’t particularly awkward until the launch, and Emma was polite enough not to mention how anxious Regina was during liftoff. When they were finally in space the viewer changed to a real time display of the solar system as they traveled, and the countdown changed to a little over five hours.

“Well, it’s getting late,” Emma said.  
  
“Late?” Regina asked. “It’s not even five o’clock.”

Emma shrugged. “We’re in space now, which uses Earth Time. Its almost twenty-two hundred.”

“Oh,” Regina mumbled, shuffling nervously.

Emma smiled as she climbed into the bed. “Don’t worry. You’ll get used to being on a ship soon. Best thing to do is get some sleep now so you can get up bright and early tomorrow and have breakfast. Besides, if you aren’t used to it, you really aren’t going to want to be awake when we hit hyperspace.”

 

* * *

 

It was early the next morning when Emma woke up. Regina looked pale and thoroughly ill, and she suspected that the other woman had in fact stayed awake until they’d made the jump to hyperspace. She couldn’t remember ever being unused to the sensation, but most first timers didn’t take the experience well. Emma was just glad her new roommate hadn’t puked.

She had woken up earlier than she needed to, so rather than waking Regina Emma slipped outside of the room and headed down the hallway. The section of the ship she was living in was a large module containing nothing but living space for the colonists, and it didn’t take her long to find one of the mess halls. It was almost entirely empty so early in the morning, so she grabbed a tray of food and sat by herself.

She was almost finished eating what the menu had claimed was waffles when someone sat down across from her. It was a woman a few years younger than her, with short hair and a friendly smile. “Hello! I’m Mary Margaret.”

“Hey,” Emma said with a smile. “Emma Swan.”

“So, why are you going on this trip?” Mary Margaret asked. Emma hesitated for a moment, and Mary Margaret almost tripped over her words when she noticed. “Sorry! I guess that’s a bit personal. I’m going to be a teacher. I just wanted to make my own life for myself, and when I saw that they wanted someone to teach children on a new colony I had my father help me get passage. This is all so exciting!”

Emma wasn’t sure what to make of Mary Margaret. She seemed very naïve and overly enthusiastic, but also genuinely kind. “I’m going to be the sheriff.”

“Wow,” Mary Margaret said with a smile. “I hope we can be friends. A chance to start a new life on a world no one’s ever lived on – its like something from a story.”

Emma shrugged. “Hopefully not a horror vid.”

Mary Margaret giggled. “Maybe a romance tale.”

Emma rolled her eyes, but found herself enjoying breakfast with the other woman. She didn’t realize time was passing until almost an hour later when Regina entered. She sent her roommate a smile, which was returned for just a moment before the woman’s face froze. Her eyes burned as she glared at Mary Margaret, before she stalked across the room.

“What are you doing here?” Regina demanded coldly.

Mary Margaret jumped in her seat, eyes wide with surprise. “Regina? Wow! What are you doing here? Did you and Daniel decide to move out here to start a new life?”  
  
A hundred emotions flickered across Regina’s face before finally it became carefully neutral. “No. He... left. I decided that I would start over on this colony.”

“I’m so sorry,” Mary Margaret said sadly. “You seemed so wonderful together. Did you speak with your mother before coming here?”

“My mother?” Regina asked.

“Yes,” Mary Margaret said. “She was very worried about you. I was hoping that you would reconcile – you didn’t just hop on this colony ship without clearing the air with her did you?”

“We... spoke,” Regina said blandly. Mary Margaret beamed, while Regina looked as though she was considering strangling the woman for a moment. Finally she calmed and gave a very fake smile to Mary Margaret, nodded to Emma, and left the cafeteria.

“That’s odd,” Mary Margaret said. “I wonder why she didn’t sit down with us to eat?”

 

* * *

 

It wasn’t until that evening that Emma was finally able to corner Regina. The other woman had managed to avoid her all day by throwing herself into her work as the future colony administrator. Despite having six months of travel time Regina apparently decided to get as much preparatory work done on the first day as possible.

“So, I don’t want to pry, but I’m not as dense as Mary Margaret,” Emma said as Regina began to gather a change of clothing before going to the sonic showers. “Do you want to talk about what happened?”  
  
“For someone who doesn’t want to pry you’re doing quite a bit of it,” Regina said coldly.

Emma shrugged. “Look, I get not wanting to open up. I don’t like to talk about things much either. But you’re not going to be able to avoid everything for very long on a ship. Trust me, in a week you’ll have nothing left to do but think of ways to trick Mary Margaret into an airlock, and I really don’t want to have to arrest you for murder. If you really don’t want to talk then don’t but... it might help.”

Regina slumped. “I was dating Daniel. My mother wouldn’t have approved of the match so we kept it from her. Instead she wanted me to marry _her_ father.”

“Mary Margaret’s?” Emma asked. “She’s almost as old as we are. So he’d be, um, _old_.”

“Yes, well, it would’ve been a useful political match,” Regina said mechanically. “Mary Margaret found out about Daniel and she promised not to tell my mother. Apparently she informed my mother instead, and Daniel... Daniel was in an ‘accident’. That’s why I left.”

Emma stood and crossed the room, carefully laying a very awkward hand on Regina’s shoulder. She was curled in on herself, but she wasn’t exactly crying. She was just... wilted.

“I’m sorry,” Emma said. “Is there anything I can do to help?”  
  
“What can you do?” Regina suddenly snarled, twirling around. “He’s dead! Nothing can bring him back.”

“I know,” Emma said quietly. “I know.”

 

* * *

 

The next three months passed faster than Emma would’ve expected. While Regina was good at putting on a front, she was a complete mess, and if Emma wasn’t so stubborn in her resolution to help the woman she probably would’ve given up on the project long before.

Besides her sheer stubbornness, what really made Emma determined to help Regina were the glimpses of the woman she was under all of her anger and grief. Shy, kind, but determined and capable, Regina was a captivating person. Emma had never really had many friends in her life, and before she knew it she was becoming extremely close to Regina. Fortunately for her own sanity, her efforts were paying off as well – Regina was recovering from her loss, spending less time aimlessly enraged and more time hilariously snarky.  Unfortunately for Emma's sanity, she founder herself more and more attracted to the other woman with each passing day.

“What was that?” Emma asked, pulled from her thoughts when she realized that Regina had stopped talking.

The woman rolled her eyes. “I said, we should get ready for the party.”

“Oh no,” Emma said. “I’m not the party sort.”

Regina raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. “You’re going to be the sheriff of Storybrooke. That means that you need to spend time with these people.”  
  
“Hey, I see them,” Emma protested.

“No, you see your dinner plate,” Regina said. “Just because you eat at the same time as other people doesn’t mean you meet them. The only person you really talk to is Mary Margaret.”

Emma ignored the way she sneered the name. “I talk to Ruby, too.”

“The half dressed waitress,” Regina said. “Such wonderful company you keep.”  
  
“There’s also this pain in the ass administrator who I spend time with,” Emma grumbled. Despite her protests she stood, grabbed her nicest clothing, and headed to take a quick sonic shower.

When she returned to her room she gulped. She’d noticed Regina’s beauty immediately, but she hadn’t seen the woman really dress up before. She was wearing a beautiful, shimmering dark purple gown that revealed every bit of her figure without actually showing anything. Emma just stared, unable to find words.

Regina looked at her and smirked. “You clean up well.”  
  
“You don’t look bad yourself,” Emma managed, trying to sound aloof, although her throat was too dry to really manage it.

Regina looked her over for a moment, before strutting up to her, hips swinging hypnotically. “Sheriff... you look good enough to eat.”

“O-oh?” Emma squeaked.

With a predatory grin Regina pressed her lips to Emma’s. The kiss was long and slow, full of enticing promises that made Emma’s head spin. She leaned forward, wanting more, just as Regina pulled away.

“Come on, we have a party to go to,” Regina teased.

Emma stood slack jawed for a moment, before smirking and running to catch up to the other woman. She was starting to think her plan to put down roots might work out after all.

 

**Author's Note:**

> This was for Swan Queen Week 2015, Prompt 2: Roommates. I decided to make my AU really AU, so here is the SciFi version of roommates.


End file.
